How hard is it to size .358-200 gr .35 remington slugs, down to .350 to use in .348

[koger]

I have a buddy who is tight on money, and has a 348 Win 71. I have a .358 6 Cavity 200 gr Lee mold made for .35 Remington, could this be run thru on Lee type sizer and sized down to 349-350 diameter, or would it take 2 to do it. I could take a .338 and open it up to the desired 350 diameter. Just wanting to get this down to size, PC and start load development, this is not a gascheck mold. All help appreciated, simpler is better.

[Kylongrifle32]

If you can come up with the sizer dies needed to do it in two or three steps should be doable. I was sizing cast . 434 Boolits down to . 429 with a Lee sizer die.
One thing to conceded is the the lead has to move somewhere so some of the driving bands get moved into the lube grooves. Since you mentioned you are going to PC them this should not be a problem with shrinking lube grooves

[sharps4590]

As your coating, yes. You will probably have to do it in at least two steps. .008 is quite a bit to size all at once.

[MarkP]

I have sized some 0.418" to 0.411" for a friend to try in his T/C 41 Mag I did it in one shot using a LEE push through die. Effort was like resizing a rifle case that is a little skinny on case lube. They were already lubed and checked for my .416. I would not try that with my Star.

[RickinTN]

I'm also afraid that if you try to open a 338" die that much you'll end up with an oblong hole, unless you have better equipment than I do.
Good Luck,
Rick

[stubshaft]

Sizing that much will not ensure that the bullet is concentric.

[muskeg13]

I don't know if you'd want to invest in something like this, but it might be worth it depending on how many you plan to size.
https://www.buffaloarms.com/351-custom-bullet-sizing-die-bac351.html
I've sized .338 (and a bit larger) down to .330 for use in a 8x56R M30 Carbine with no great problems. It will help to have already sized and lubed the.358 boolits with a good stiff lube to completely fill the grease grooves, as cast boollits may be a bit larger than the advertised .358, and the wax/grease filled grooves will assist in maintaining the grooves when you do the "big" resizing reduction. It also doesn't hurt to hand lube with something like STP applied over the already sized and lubed .358 slugs before running them through the .351 sizing die. Take things slow.

Another thought is to run them through a .355/.356 (9mm) sizing die as an intermediate step.

I've been able to size down lead core jacketed bullets .338 to .330 and .416 to .413, but liberally using the STP or Imperial Wax is a must, and success depends on how thick the jacket is. Not all .416s are the same. What worked with one brand of bullets didn't work with another brand with thicker jackets. Sometimes the Lee push through sizer may works best for something like this. Most importantly, don't force things or you can break things, like a lubrisizer handle. Guess how I know this? If the final sizing step is going to work, you'll be able to tell by feel. Stiff is one thing, but stuck is another, and employing a "cheater" at that point will end the whole operation real fast until you get the replacement parts in.

[Larry Gibson]

Yes, you could size the 358 (probably closer to .360 out of the mould) to .350. It would probably need to be lubed first to help maintain the lube grooves then done in 2 - 3 steps. Other wise the bullet probably will get squished with less steps.

Biggest problem is the nose will still be too large to fit the bore of the M71 and would also have to be sized down. By the time you invest in the sizers, time and effort it will be better to just buy an appropriate mould. Or, just buy commercial cast bullets.

[koger]

Thanks everyone, I have decided to get him the Accurate 35 220 mold and gas checks, and a appropriate sizer for his 450. This will probably last him his life, he will never shoot 1000 gas checks. Christmas will come early for him, thanks for all the feedback.

[rintinglen]

I have a buddy who is tight on money, and has a 348 Win 71. I have a .358 6 Cavity 200 gr Lee mold made for .35 Remington, could this be run thru on Lee type sizer and sized down to 349-350 diameter, or would it take 2 to do it. I could take a .338 and open it up to the desired 350 diameter. Just wanting to get this down to size, PC and start load development, this is not a gascheck mold. All help appreciated, simpler is better.

Precisely what I did. I used 320 and 400 grit sand paper on a 5/16's dowell and an electric drill. I slid the drill in and then pumped it back and forth, periodically sizing a boolit and checking to see how close I was to my desired goal. The issue you may run into is that the ogive of your LEE boolit may be too large, preventing the round from chambering because it is too tight in the throat. If your boolit measures more than ~.340 in front of the front drive band, Houston we have a problem. I ran into that problem myself when trying to use RCBS 358-200 boolits. I did achieve a work around with the aid of a Letter R drill bit and a piece of 1/2 inch aluminum. I resized the nose to .340 by tapping the gas-checked boolit into the hole I had made, resized the base to .349 in my altered LEE sizer while simultaneously crimping the Hornady gas check.

A boolit that works for plinking and practice is the good old 358-429, ~170 grain SWC. They shoot low, but I have shot up a bunch, using 13.0 grains of Red Dot.
300687

Eventually, I ordered a 35-220b from Accurate Molds.